Articles for Pay Gap

Fix the System, Not the Women

If women could fix the gender pay gap all by themselves it would be done. We don’t have time to mess around. We can’t afford what it costs us in lost wages to say nothing of bonuses and retirement contributions that are based on a percentage of our base pay. Suggesting that we can do it all by ourselves by changing who we are is yet another attempt to “fix the women” instead of fixing the system.

A Lifetime of Inequality Can Start With the Very First Paycheck

Every paycheck you receive during your career, with a few exceptions, will build on that first paycheck. Every salary increase. Every bonus. Even matching retirement contributions. Since most employers use percentages to calculate all of the above, that first paycheck can be the start of something big. Except for women, it’s usually the start of something less. 

Women and Salary Negotiations

Negotiation: the fact that men do and women don’t is one of the reasons used to explain the gender pay gap and was the subject of the best selling book by Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever, Women Don’t Ask, in 2007. The book and its related research spawned thousands of workshops and classes aimed at teaching women to negotiate their salaries and close the gap. 

In spite of these efforts, the gender pay gap persist.